Mantle Madness

I don't have a mantle.

I WISH I did!

BUT... I do have a wonderful UPcycled shelf that I love!

It serves as my mantle.

I re-decorate it all the time.

For January/February, this is it!

The details:

 ...and my favorite parts right now:

My daughter gave these to me after Christmas, and I LOVE THEM! 

The mushrooms!!!

Aren't they the CUTEST???

(yeah, I know they are Christmas ornaments... 

BUT I had to use 'em now!!!  Wouldn't YOU?)

    

Yeah, I'm gonna share my mantle often now.

It is one of my favorite things to decorate!

thanks for visiting!

danella 

UPcycle THAT! What can you do with a JAR?

We sure do 'collect' a lot of JARS, huh?

What can we do with them, besides re-cycling?

Some of my favorite jars, I keep.

Recently I found a great book at the Salvation Army store for $1.

It's a kid's story book... but no pictures... and it's bigger than normal...

and a wee bit 'aged'.

So I used it for the  book page paper  
and made the flowers on the jars!

Plus I used burlap from Home Depot that has a really loose weave

(which is VERY in-expensive and found in the garden shop).

plus some white burlap I picked up at a fabric store a while back,

plus some jute twine in different sizes,
plus some [packing] corrugated paper I managed to get from work! [FREE!]

...and made this CUTE vignette of jars! [and one candle]

and here are the DETAILS, with directions how to make the flowers!
NOTE: I used a COOL GLUE gun for everything! 

I used these punches for the flowers:

 
The letter is simply stenciled on the white burlap, and outlined a bit with a permanent marker.  Then I glued the burlap onto the jar, 
then added jute trim to the top and bottom.

 The little 'riser'... I needed something to raise it up a bit...
couldn't find anything... then thought ... 'why not use a tuna can?!'
So I simply covered it with some of the corrugated paper,
and tied on a jute bow!

   

  I used the loose weave burlap from Home Depot around this jar.
Added some lace trim, and made the paper flowers.    

The paper flowers were made like this:
1) Punch out three flowers
2) Fold the flowers into thirds
3) Put them one by one onto a 'Pop-Up Glue Dot'
4) Fluff into the flower!  

This jar is wrapped with the white burlap...
and wrapped with a few rounds of jute.
Then I made the rosettes, [directions below], and added a few twigs! 

I simply added a few Pop-Up Glue Dots to the top of the
candleholder, to temporarily hold the jar in place.

  
...and the directions to make the rosettes:
1) Punch a circle
2) [Draw a 'snail' line if you need to, and
cut it out, leaving a small 'circle' in the very middle.
(I trim the outer edge to smooth it out, 'cause there is a little 'bump')
3) Start rolling up the cut edge, with the inner part as the
'bottom' of the flower... trying to keep the 'top' part fanning out a bit.
(Yeah, it's tricky... you have to play with it a bit to get the hang of it)
4) When you get to the 'end'... add a Pop-Up Glue Dot to the
little 'circle' in the middle/end, and push the bottom tightly into it.       5) You got your rosette!

  
This one is fast and easy!
Just the loosely woven burlap with some lace over the top...
and a simple jute bow.  
Again, I temporarily glued the jar to the top of a candleholder... 

 This one I simply used a permanent marker and free-handed the letter on a white burlap square.
Then glued it onto the loose burlap, and around the jar.
Then added a simple jute bow around the top. 

 My favorite jar!
I did the rosette's along with a few other flowers, shown below.
First wrapped the jar with the paper, and tied jute around three times.

The flowers:
The posie:
1) Punch three posies
2) Trim them into the petals, so they are looser.
3) Fold each into thirds, making sure you don't 'match' the petals.
4) One by one... push each into a Pop-Up Glue Dot... 
5) And fluff!     

  
And the other one:
1) Since these are daintier, punch four!
2) Fold into fourths
3) Stick/push each into the Pop-Up Glue Dot... 
4) Fluff and enjoy!  

Then, last, but not least:
the little candle.
[NOTE: the candle stand was old and black. I re-painted it]

  
The candle was old and had black running down the sides..
So I decided to cover it with the corrugated paper.
Then made a flower with the white burlap...
SO CUTE!!!
 1) Cut a piece of burlap about 3 x 9"
2) Fold over one [short] end and glue
3) Find the middle 'string' and pull... to gather it slightly
4) Fold it in half... along the pulled string
5) Glue as you roll up, keeping the folded part 'tight'...
and the loose part 'fluffy'
6) When you are done, press out the 'petals' slightly to form the
CUTE flower!     

   
I wanted the thank the sources that I got some of my info from:
You can check out their blogs for their own beautiful projects!
Holly from http://downtoearthstyle.blogspot.com/  
Tonya from  http://www.loveoffamilyandhome.net

I hope I've inspired you to CREATE some COOL decor!

thanks for visiting!
danella  
 

Who say's [old] girls can't have FUN?

It's SCRAPPY SATURDAY!

When my hubs and I decided that we were gonna move to AZ...

it was a happy/sad day.

The sad part???

Leaving behind amazing FRIENDS.

I wish, as I look back, that ALL of us could'a done this...

it was the best of times.

(In retrospect... it is all about TIME. That elusive element that intrudes on our lives.

We just don't/can't seem to give up time to do something that we just might remember forEVER,

and never/ever regret that we did it.  It was sorta 'difficult' to come up with a date that we

could ALL get together ... for an overnighter.  But, it was so worth it.  Who, my friends,

can 'boast' of something like this?  MAKE THE TIME for fun, friends.  It's just too fleeting.)    

These girls are a group that got together for dinner on a regular basis...to celebrate one of our birthdays.

For several years we did this.

We yakked one time, and decided;

"Well, why not have a slumber party before Danella leaves?

Who says only KIDS getta do that?"

So we did it!  We all got together at my house up on the 'Mtn'.

(I lived near Mt. Hood in a town called Zigzag.)

To remember this slumber party forEVER...

I designed a little mini, and we EACH made this little album!

(I love Heidi Swapp... so I did it in her style too)

Without further ado... here it is!

 To my friends in Oregon:

I LOVE you!

Miss you terribly...

including all those that are not in the little album!

I will always and forever remember you.

danella 

       

   

UPcycle THAT!

Today's UPcycle THAT! is a really different one!

It's all about COLOR.

Our refrigerator, after a lot of different chirps, whistles and squeaks,

and shivers and NOT keeping our ice cream FROZEN...

finally made us go on a search for a different fridge!

Well, we just didn't have any money for a NEW one...

so we went on the search for a USED one!

And FREE was even better!

Terry lucked out... he was hired to do a job to put together

a big car shelter... and with that, the guy happened to have...

an 'old' (to him!!!) fridge he wanted to get rid of.

Uhhhhh...

'well, we'll take it!!!!'

The fridge is [much] nicer than our old one...

and it worked great!

BUT.

The one thing that would make me crazy...

(is anyone else out there like this???)

was that it wasn't gonna match... my stove???

Do we really care, when it's FREE?

Me? Yes.  So Terry said to me:

'Well honey, since you would take one of those cool old fashioned 

RED ones, why not paint this one???"

I thought... 'well, why not?  it's FREE'

And so I did!

Here's the [not a good color to me] original almond:

           

  Now, I was in a hurry (as usual)...

and didn't wanna prime (probably my mistake?)

So I taped all the stainless steel and water button panel off...

with FROGTAPE

   Then, I opened the doors... and papered and taped off the inside.

I started at like 3am... 'cause I wanted to beat the heat.

I did this during the summer...

It took me hours... really, to do all the taping and painting!

ack!!!

Then, the painting.

I had SIX cans of RUST-OLEUM Gloss Protective Enamel

in Regal Red.

(Yes, I tested the color before I bought 'em all!)

Then, started spraying... and spraying... and spraying.

This was the HUGEST thing I've ever done!

...meantime, it was getting hotter, and HOTTER, and HOTTER!      

 THEN....

I went and ran outta paint!

And I wasn't quite done.

DANG!!!

So I had to ZOOM to Sutherlands (about 20 min away)

and they didn't have enough... so I ZOOMED to Ace Hardware...

and finally got together another 4 cans.

DANG!

Then zoomed back home, an hour or so later...

to continue my ordeal of spray painting!

By then, it was so HOT, I was so TIRED, 

(not to mention very sweaty)

and I was

DONE.

Finished.

But, it actually turned out quite nice!

HOORAH!

    We had to take the doors off again, to get it back inside the house...

after letting it dry overnight.

And it did pretty good, coming in, but you can see a little scratch

in the photo above.

And we had one more small scratch on one side.

But overall...

it's awesome!

(but a little... sorta blotchy.. but not bad at all)

and.

Guess what?
I LOVE it!

Anything to be different from everyone else!

Conform???

Me????

NOT